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I am a slow learner. Several times in the past few years I have paddled my canoe under a particular sycamore tree in the New River in Radford, Virginia. Each time I do so, I am greeted by large numbers of cormorant poop bombs dropped by the dozens of cormorants that seem to find that particular tree to their liking, and this particular canoeist not to their liking. Fortunately, cormorants have bad aim, but unfortunately it is not that bad.

Daniel Natusch and three other researchers wanted to know how an analogous form of nutrient enrichment from large colonies of nesting Metallic Starlings (Aplonis metallica) affects the nearby ecosystem in a tropical Australian rainforest. They were interested in this question because it was obvious that the ground below the nesting colony trees was basically devoid of vegetation; they describe it as “an open moonscape”, contrasting sharply with the thick rainforest nearby. Other studies have shown that nutrient enrichment from bird guano leads to increased vegetation density – so why is this ecosystem different?

Dan Natusch conducts herpetological research with his son Huxley. Credit: Jessica Lyons

The researchers compared the biological, chemical and physical environment underneath 27 different colony trees to the environment underneath a randomly chosen tree 100-200 meters from the colony tree. As expected, they found very little vegetation near colony trees, in contrast to relatively dense vegetation near the randomly chosen trees.

Vegetation cover (left) and number of live stems (right) in relation to distance from the colony or randomly chosen tree (Point 0 on X-axis). Negative numbers are downslope and positive numbers are upslope from the tree.

Soil analyses showed that the soils under the colony trees had much higher concentrations of important nutrients. For example, phosphorus levels were more than 30 times greater, and ammonium nitrogen was about four times greater under colony trees than under the randomly chosen trees. The researchers wondered whether these nutrient levels were so high that they were toxic to vegetation. That would account for the dead zone under the colony trees. An alternative hypothesis is that animals (pigs and turkeys in particular) may be attracted to these high nutrient areas under the colonies, and may either kill germinating plants by eating or trampling them.

To test both hypotheses, at the beginning of the breeding season the researchers covered a portion of the colony tree region with metal cages (exclosures) that prevented turkeys and pigs from gaining access. They discovered a much greater number of seedlings under the exclosures in comparison to the areas where turkeys and pigs could access the seedlings.

They concluded that nutrient levels were not toxic to seedlings, but that pigs and turkeys were either eating or trampling the seedlings as they emerge. As you can see, the number of exclosure seedlings dropped sharply in July, in part because rainfall declines sharply in June, which leads to high plant mortality, particularly in the unshaded dead zone. But in addition, feral pigs broke into all of the exclosures that summer to access the seedlings and the nutrient-rich soil.

Do these dead zones actually benefit the starlings in any way? One possible advantage is that dead zones prevent snakes from climbing nearby trees and vines to gain access to the nests that are located high in the canopy of the colony tree. However there is good evidence that colony trees suffer high mortality, as 10 of the 27 colony trees died within three years of the study. Trees that fall during the nesting period could lead to the failure of all of the nests within that colony tree.

Why do we find dead zones beneath colonies of Metallic Starlings, and increased plant growth rate, larger plant size and greater plant diversity beneath the colonies of several other bird colonies? Most previous studies have looked at sea-bird colonies on small islands that have few terrestrial herbivores, so germinating seedlings are relatively undisturbed. This study occurred in a continuous forest in tropical Australia, which harbored a large population of hungry herbivores. These contrasting findings show the important role of environmental context for understanding how ecological interactions will play out. Given that we humans are continually adding nutrients to our environment (through natural bodily function and when we fertilize our fields), we need to carefully consider the biotic and abiotic players in the ecosystem, so we can predict the effects we are having on the environment.